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Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!

I need to start by contextualising this post. I respect the Christian festival of Easter, and I am not attempting to undermine their beliefs. My comments merely reflect my interest in where some of the traditions that we all follow come from.

Anyway, I am currently trying to write a ‘folk horror’ story for children, which has involved doing some research about Pagan traditions in our country. Since it is April, I was naturally drawn to the myths relating to Easter.

By the way, ‘folk horror’ is a genre of horror that focuses on myths, legends, and folklore in general. It is usually set in rural areas, and as I have lived all my life in Somerset, I know quite a bit about them!

I read with interest about the Anglo-Saxon Goddess Eostre. She was celebrated in the fourth month of the year, ‘Eosturmonath,’ so it is not a huge leap to conclude that the modern celebration of Easter took her name.

Over time, the story developed, as myths tend to, and the Easter Hare, known as Ostrehase, became closely tied to the myth of Eostre. There is a story, recounted by Grimm in the 1800s, that she turned a frozen bird into a hare, which is why it still laid eggs. However, it had no need for them now as it was no longer a bird, so it would give them away. This story migrated with Germanic immigrants to America and then seems to have evolved into the story of the Easter Bunny.

Prior to my research, I guess I had always thought it was completely an American tradition that we copied in the UK, like Halloween, so it was nice to know that the story goes back a bit further than that.

Interestingly, there is also a view that the Hot Cross Bun may not always have been Christian, and it may in fact have been co-opted from Eostre celebrations, when the distinctive topping of the bun may have signified the phases of the moon or the four seasons. Due to the nature of these stories and the lack of clear evidence one way or the other, everything needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Ironically, ‘a pinch of salt’ is an important ingredient of the buns themselves!

My personal history of the Hot Cross Bun dates back to the time when we could only buy them from the bakery on Good Friday, so I consider myself somewhat of an expert in them. On that subject, can we please stop making so many different varieties and just focus on doing them properly next year?

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